The Right Time and Place

It was the start of a very hot Fourth of July weekend. My husband, my dog and Ihad just returned from the lake only to find our cat had been hit by a car andleft on the side of the road. He was still alive, but he was hurt badly. His jawand paw looked badly broken.

We tried to call our vet right away, only to get a recording saying he was gonefor the weekend. We called every veterinarian in the phone book with no luck. Ikept going back to look in the phone book to see if there were any animalhospitals that I missed. We finally decided we had to wait until morning whenall of a sudden the cat cried out in pain.

It was now midnight. I went back to the phone book and said,“God, please help uswith this cat.”

I looked in the phone book again and there was one veterinary hospital abouttwenty miles away that I hadn't called yet. The name and number seemed to jumpout at me. I called the number and I was very surprised when a woman answeredthe phone. I was even more surprised when she said she was the vet and asked howsoon we could get there.

The vet said it didn't look good. Our cat's brain was starting to swell and hecouldn't see, but she would try and save him if we wanted her to.The cat did survive, with his eyesight intact, and after one week he came home.

But the miracle didn't sTOP there. The cat's leg wasn't broken, but the musclehad been torn and the vet thought the cat would need his whole leg amputated.

After the second week, the cat was using that paw almost a hundred percent.

Later the vet told me that if I’d called at any other time that night I would’vegotten a recording there, too. The vet said she’d only sTOPped for a few minutesto check the animals.

I guess when I asked God to help us, He gave us the right time and place tocall.

恰好時間

[紐約]琳達·默雷

7月4日周末正是燠暑的開始。我、我老公和狗剛從湖邊回來，結果發現大家的貓被小車撞了，被撂在路邊。它仍舊活著，但傷勢緊急。它的顎和爪像是骨折了。

大家趕快給獸醫打電話，結果錄音電話說他出去度周末了。不幸的是，大家幾乎給電話簿上的每一個獸醫打了電話。我又重新在電話簿上探尋看看是不是有我錯過的獸醫院。大家最后決定不能不等到早晨，這個時候貓忽然痛苦地尖叫起來。

正值子夜時分。我又去翻電話簿說，“上帝，請幫助這只貓。”

我又看了看電話簿，發現有一個我還沒打電話的獸醫院，離這兒約20英里。名字和號碼仿佛沖向我似的。我撥了號碼，而當一位婦女回電話時我感到詫異。當她說她是獸醫并問大家多長時間才能到達那兒時我越發詫異。

獸醫說事情不太妙。大家貓的頭開始腫脹，它也看不見了，但假如大家期望她挽救它的話，她會盡力而為。

貓的確活了下來，但沒視力。一周后它回家了。但奇跡沒停止。貓的腿沒骨折，但肌肉撕裂了，獸醫覺得貓需要整條腿截肢。兩周后，貓幾乎百分之百在用那爪。

后來獸醫對我說，假如那天晚上其他時間打電話，我也會得到錄音回答的。獸醫說她僅僅停幾分鐘再去檢查動物。

我覺得當我叫上帝幫助大家時，他就給了我適合的時間打電話。